The region: Party like it's 1939

Despite the thinnest of veneers, 2013 is much like 1929, 1941, 1948, 1979, 2000-2004, etc., as far as Israel’s place in the Middle East goes.

By BARRY RUBIN

December 9, 2013 21:17

US and Israel flags 370.
(photo credit: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun)

I have been working hard in the column to explain to people that Iran’s nuclear
weapons are not the major threat to Israel. Rather, the problem is that after
almost a century, Israel is not just the object of genocide by the Arabs but by
many Iranian, Turkish and newly European and North American Muslims. It is truly
awesome how few politically active would-be peacemakers among Arabs and Middle
Eastern Muslims there are.

Given Secretary of State Haman the Agagite, it
is unfortunate that there is no King Ahasuerus. Of course some of this,
especially in the West, is due to the phony two-state or at least
two-stage-to-extinction solution. I should mention this is not just a knee-jerk
conclusion on my part, but one reached over the course of 45 years. Of course,
we can always hope for a Queen Esther, who in answer to the king’s, “Where is
the man who has dared to do such a thing?” could reply, “The adversary and enemy
is this vile Haman.” Somehow, I don’t see Michelle Obama playing such a
role.

1939: Muslim Brotherhood subsidized by Nazi Germany. Seventy-
five years later, the grandson of the head of the Brotherhood and the son of the
Palestinian European leader were permitted by The New York Times, without
contradiction, to write that the Brotherhood believed in parliamentary democracy
and was pro-British during the war.

Meanwhile, the Brotherhood and the
Arab-Palestinian leadership from Berlin were advocating massacres of the Jews in
Egypt, and the government was providing maps of British fortifications to the
German army.

1941: The Palestinians Arab leadership asks for a safe haven
in Berlin.

For the next four years, this leadership organizes thousands
of German Nazi troops, SS imams, advises the German government, sends
delegations to concentration camps with an eye on setting up death camps
throughout the Middle East, etc.

1970: Arab summit – no recognition of Israel, no negotiations,
no peace.

1970-1982: Decades of terrorism; the murder of any Israeli in
reach; yet relatively little retaliation. The assassination of almost every Arab
leader willing to make peace with Israel.

1973: War.

2000: Refusal
of UN partition to receive a Palestinian Arab state.

There’s lots more,
but really, what’s the point? The situation today is just more of the same. It
is blindingly obvious that despite the thinnest of veneers, 2013 is pretty much
the same as 1929, 1941, 1948, 1979, 2000-2004, etc., as far as Israel’s place in
the Middle East goes. That is a terrible and sobering conclusion – but it is the
truth.

Remember that Iran (34 years) and Turkey (about 12 years) are
relatively new additions to existential conflict with Israel.

When asked
in a recent poll if Israeli-PA negotiations would ever lead to peace, 25 percent
of Jewish Israelis said yes, while 73% of them said no. Remember, many of those
Jews who were against still – or used to – vote for the Left. It is frustrating
that Israel and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s “hard line” is being blamed
for this, but it should be obvious that the conflict will not end.

In the
meantime, Iran is getting nuclear weapons while Israel is getting nothing but
insults from Kerry as the – wait for it – “bad” guy after 65 years. He is
unintentionally encouraging murders (two of four Israeli soldiers killed in two
weeks were not killed in the territories – one was killed while visiting what he
thought was an Arab “friend” and another while sleeping on a bus
bench).

Or as former US secretary of state George Shultz explains what is
really happening: Iranians will “cut your throat.” He is really encouraging this
Iranian throat-cutting. But no doubt Kerry knows better.

On Palestinian
television (which incidentally is under protest for censorship by Palestinian
journalists who have at times been arrested), he stated: “Failure of the talks
will increase Israel’s isolation in the world. The alternative to getting back
to the talks is a potential of chaos. I mean, does Israel want a third intifada?
I believe that if we do not find a way to find peace, there will be an
increasing isolation of Israel.”

So what is Iran doing in the meanwhile?
Here are some public statements by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: First,
Israel is “the rabid dog” of the region. Iranian leaders have also said that
Israel wants genocide against all Muslims. In fact, anti-Semitism is justified
on the basis of the Koran by Iranian leaders. Iran says that everybody in the
Middle East wants to destroy Israel.

But here is the tip-off: “Zionist
officials cannot be called humans, they are like animals.... The Israeli regime
is doomed to failure and annihilation.”

But wait, there’s more. Here is
Khamenei’s analysis of US positions: He accused Western officials of “kneeling
before the Israeli regime.”

Moreover, he said, “The government of the
United States of America is on the top of the arrogance in the world.” (The
audience repeatedly chants: “Death to America.”) And he continues: “We fight
against the arrogance. Arrogance is a word in the Koran. It is used in the Koran
for people like Pharaoh, malevolent groups which are hostile to truth and
righteousness.” I think pharaoh ended up being drowned in the sea. I don’t think
that there is any good intention for the US here, even though it is going to
stop sanctions worth billions of dollars to Iran, and enable them to develop
nuclear weapons.

Last, he stated that the “Zionist regime is doomed to
oblivion. The Zionist regime is an imposed regime which is formed by force. None
of the formations or creatures which are formed by force is durable, and neither
is this one.... Unfortunately, some European countries cringe before this
creature which is not worthy of the name of a human being, before these leaders
of the Zionist regime, who look like beasts and who cannot be called
human.”

Sounds like he wants peace to me! But wait a minute, that rings a
bell. Who was it that used to go on about who could not be called human? Where
have we heard that before? Ah, that’s right: Nazi Germany. That didn’t end well,
did it.

Any by the way, the Obama administration did not condemn these
vicious anti-Israel statements, nor did it alter any policy because of them.
Holocaust? Yawn. Meanwhile, US policy has also hardened Palestinian Arabs’
lines, as shown in statements by leaders. In turn, the Palestinian Arabs have
hardened their policy, insulting the United States. Brandeis University
suspended its partnership with al-Quds University after the West Bank University
had a rally that was meant to honor the martyrdoms of Islamic Jihad terrorists,
in which the symbol of Israel, the Star of David, was symbolically stepped on by
all demonstrators.

Well what do you think has been happening for almost
90 years?

The author is director of the Global Research in International Affairs
(GLORIA) Center at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya and is editor of
the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) journal.

Sites Of Interest

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